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Comment by sixothree | Hacker News Reader

There have been closer elections in recent history. Why are you giving this particular one such outsized proportion?

You didn't see this sort of reaction in 2000, and that was far far closer.

And to be clear, this election was 306 to 232. That is considered a landslide in my book (meaning my 40+ years of living). And in percentages, you can see just how poorly Trump performed in this election - 51.4% to 46.9%. 2000 was 47.9% to 48.4% (technically a negative 0.5% difference).

So I think your argument is completely disingenuous.

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> You didn't see this sort of reaction in 2000, and that was far far closer.

Just a comment on this point, I see two huge differences:

1) Gore conceded. On 13-Dec 2000. Trump only just "conceded", and still called it rigged, stolen etc. It makes a big difference when the leader concedes.

2) Technology has totally change the landscape in the last 20 years. There are now plenty of spaces on the Internet, huge echo chambers, allowing people to share posts and fuel each others hatred, spread misinformation, organise and mobilise.

How how the times change. Gore conceded. Then withdrew it. Then later conceded again. Up until 2000, it was pretty unprecedented. Some rather spicy events.

2020 obviously blew it all out of the water though.

> Why are you giving this particular one such outsized proportion?

> You didn't see this sort of reaction in 2000

I think you found the reason? When exactly have we seen such a reaction before?

When have we seen the loser's followers violently storm the Capitol to stop the certification of the election's votes? Never in the US.

Maybe you could actually say something, instead of expecting us to guess...

This isn’t about closeness at all. It’s about ~half the country actually believing that the election was rigged. That doesn’t have precedent as far as I know.

> It’s about ~half the country actually believing that the election was rigged.

I think it's more accurate to say that a percentage of people believe they will benefit by repeating claims that the election was rigged.

It's difficult to truly believe that an election was rigged, by the other side, when your side was ultimately responsible for its administration.

That's too bad. They're wrong. And using violence is not the answer.

Half the country doesn't believe that. Source?

My bad, should’ve done the research.

In a mid December CBS news poll, “82% of Trump voters say they do not consider Mr. Biden[‘s win] legitimate.” The vast majority of trump voters isn’t the same thing as half the country.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-most-feel-electio...

I think it's telling though that the one question that's very narrowly scoped in interpretation(in that first batch about who won etc), the question about what should happen if the electoral college votes for Joe Biden, has 51% of Trump voters saying that Trump should concede.

Seems like most voters were still holding out while there was some hope of a viable legal route to contest the election. But a majority of Trump voters, at the time of the poll anyway, made a clean break from contesting the election after the electoral college vote.

To be fair, the other half of the country believed that the previous election was thrown by Russian interference.

And to be really fair, half of the country believed neither of those things. There are plenty of people who voted for Trump who believe that he lost fair and square, and ditto Hillary voters in the previous election.

It's been interesting to watch Trump signs vanish a few at a time with each post-election milestone. Most people seem to accept the results even if their lines are different.

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